Adewale Sanyaolu
As President Muhammadu Buhari, took the oath of office for another four years last Wednesday, feelers from stakeholders suggest that the President remains on a hot seat as he is being confronted with a long-to-do list for his second term in office.
Apparently dissatisfied with his performance in the first term, stakeholders are worried that, the excuses that characterised the last four years of the immediate past administration would no longer be tenable going forward.
Buhari had promised to carry out far reaching reforms in the energy sector, especially as it relates to laws that would jump start the economy and give a new lease of life for operators in the oil and gas sector.
Sadly, that promise never saw the light of the day as the much talked about Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) still remains in the pipeline stagnating billions of dollars worth of investment while others have moved on to more investment friendly climate.
For power, the situation has not witnessed much progress as a lack of collaboration between policy makers; represented by the Ministry of Power and the Distribution Companies (Discos) has created more cracks on the wall, leaving hapless consumers to bear the brunt.
More worrisome is the inability of the Government and its agencies to respect the sanctity of contracts, thus leading to several losses in arbitration claims.
Reforms
Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, urged Buhari to improve on the pace of reforms in the oil and gas sector which he said, has remained painfully slow over the past four years.
According to him, the PIB was stalled, impeding the progress of the sector while in the upstream segment, he said the new administration should reduce the contracting processes under the joint venture partnership which takes between12 – 36 months, saying, this was a major problem for investors in the sector and the one reason that no new investors are coming into the sector.
‘‘The downstream was equally plagued by the excessive regulation which made it difficult to unlock the huge potential of the oil and gas sector. It is therefore desirable for Buhari to fully liberalise the sector so that investors can inject the needed private capital.
The President should remove the price cap on petroleum products. The dominance of the state-owned oil company (NNPC) had practically crowded out the private sector in the downstream oil sector with the economy currently facing a monopoly situation as far as the downstream petroleum sector is concerned.
Similarly the Publisher of Africa Oil and Gas Reports, Mr. Toyin Akinosho, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, called on Buhari to as a matter of urgency attend to laws that would help catalyze the oil sector.
He said a situation whereby the President sits on laws that are meant to improve the fortunes of the sector remained a major disincentive to the economy.
According to him, the country has had so much long conversations around the PIB with the first of it after been broken into four parts; the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) getting to the table of the President without being signed.
He said the law which was as a result of years of intellectual and robust discussions among stakeholders and interest groups with lots of input from experts who are far and near cannot be jettisoned for somewhat parcuniary gains.
Akinosho, warned that reforms and policies that are not anchored on established and gazzetted laws cannot stand the test of time, and would not actionable in courts especially.
Also commenting, Partner, Bloomfield Law Practice, Mr. Ayodele Oni, urged government to come out clear and tell Nigerians if it was not going ahead with the PIB anymore, saying the long wait was not worth it as several billions of investable funds are lying idle due to the non-passage of the long awaited law.
He explained that, if government was not going ahead with the PIB anymore, the Petroleum Act could still serve for another 10 years, pending when it was ready. By so doing, he said investors would be able to plan for long term deals as against the current uncertainty.
Oni said government should either sell or scale down on its stake in its various Joint Venture (JV) operations and concentrate on its Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs).
The Bloomfield partner said government giving up its stakes in its various JV operations would help the country free up some funds and use same for other development purposes.
Power
Former Minister of Transportation, Mr.Rotimi Amaechi, had said the administration was ready to provide Nigerians with 24-hour electricity supply if re-elected.
Nigeria with a population of close to 200 million people still struggles with less than 5,000 Mega Watts coupled with ageing transmission infrastructure and poor distribution network.
However, reacting to the minister’s promise Akinosho, submitted that the challenge of the power sector was more of regulation than any other consideration. He said the regulator Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC), under the new administration should take enforcement of its law more seriously.
‘‘A situation whereby NERC has become a toothless bulldog must stop forthwith. Discos and other players in the power sector value chain must be able to discharge their functions as contained in their agreements. And in a situation where they fail, appropriate sanctions should be meted out on them.”
He said the inability of Discos to produce meters Nigerians was unacceptable and should be addressed by the new administration so that consumers do not end up paying for inefficiency.
He advised the new Minister of Power not to tow the line of Fashola by not adopting his style of headmaster pupil relationship, warning that, such approach was bound to fail.
Oni, equally corroborated the assertions of Akinosho, saying the new administration must ensure that whoever becomes the Minister of Power must have a robust knowledge of the sector while carrying all players along if he or she is to succeed on the job.